The ability to recall the past is central to human life: it allows us to report on the mundane details of our day ("I had a tuna fish sandwich for lunch") as well as to create a personally meaningful autobiography or history of significant life events ("My life changed the day my daughter was born.") The ability to recall the past is rooted in infancy, although it cannot be studied in the same way as is commonly done with older children and adults. Because infants cannot report on the past using language, researchers study the development of this critical -- and perhaps uniquely human -- characteristic through behavior. The most popular procedure used to study recall memory in infancy and early childhood is known as elicited imitation. Use of this procedure has allowed for extensive research examining basic processes associated with memory development in infancy and early childhood.

 

What is still unknown, however, is how recall memory in infancy and early childhood are shaped by the social environment within which children are raised. The goal of my research program is to provide this knowledge, allowing for a richer and more contextualized understanding of precisely how recall memory first emerges and operates early in life. We are presently studying how various factors -- from those associated with the individual, such as infant language comprehension -- to those associated with culture, such as infant sleep habits and arrangements -- relate to memory development in the first years of life.